[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

Thanks all for your inputs but you're starting to invent and discuss at length problems that I never had.

Or, problems that you don't yet even know you have.

Since my last post I had solved everything using Calibre and was ready to publish on KDP. Only one more precautionary step remained. Based on a warning from someone in this thread or elsewhere on MobileRead, I did a DRM threat assessment using the tools at apprenticealf.com and found it very easy to strip the DRM protection from most any Kindle or Kobo book, or from any platform that uses Adobe Digital Editions. Only Apple seems to have won the DRM wars, so I've once again abandoned KDP for iBooks.

If you'd asked, anyone here would have told you that in a minute or so. Not that it's not good for you to learn it for yourself, but...<shrug>. It's not a secret.

Without saying anything out of school...I wouldn't count on the idea that Apple's "won" the DRM wars. That's...how shall I say it? Most likely wrong.

I would point out that as of your last post, you didn't know if the font embedding would survive uploading. I assume that's done? After all, most people "lose" their fonts at the KDP, not before.

All I can say about your retailer choice is, THANK HEAVENS that this was just an experiment for you, a learning experience, and not something you intended to use to make money!!

My typical client sells 1,000 eBooks on Amazon for every ONE--yes, ONE--that they sell on iBooks. They sell more books on KOBOBooks than they do on iBooks, and there are far, far FAR (did I say, FAR?) fewer Kobo devices in the world than there are Apple devices. For every 1K that you sell on Amazon, assuming you are a typical author, you'll sell ~110-200-ish on B&N. And some unknown number on Kobo. And ONE on iBooks.

n.b.: it's absolutely true that some books appeal to the iBooks market more than others. How-to, DIY and self-improvement books (you know, the "Aisle 5" kind of books, like "How to Get Over Yourself and Earn Big!" type), along with tomes on New Age spiritual stuff all seem to do better on iBooks than the typical fiction book.

Originally Posted by PeterT

And in doing so cut the market for your work to an even smaller number. Do you really think that most people search for a pirated version of an eBook?

Exactly.

Back to @DLSieving:

My less typical clients? The "big" ones? By which I mean, big names? International bestselling authors, and the like? The selling ratio is even worse--5,000 books on Amazon for one on Apple. The bottom line seems to be that i-Device users buy games; they buy apps; they buy movies and videos. But they don't buy BOOKS. Not in any real quantity. Not in enough of a quantity to make a difference to the publisher's pocketbook, anyway. (n.b.: most of the bestseller clients have gotten to the point that they don't even PUBLISH on iBooks any longer. They say it's more brain-damage than it's worth. I had an Edgar-winner, big name author, who's a Mac person through and through, big Apple-fanatic. She used to have us embed video clips [trailers] in her ePUBs, for Apple. Right? Now she doesn't even PUBLISH there anymore. Take it for what it's worth.).

About Piracy: If your book is worth a damn, it WILL be stolen. If you put it out in print, someone will scan, OCR, and convert it, and put it on the Darknet. They'll retype (yes, it's really done) the file from an iPad. They'll do this, or that. That's actually how you'll REALLY know you're a good writer--you've been pirated. I'm an advocate for stiffer fines for pirates, but some amount of piracy is needed.

The last time I looked, Pirate Bay's "bestselling" pirated eBooks were, in order:

1. Game cheats, of all kinds;
2. Playboy magazines; and
3. Excel macro books.

Which, I think, says everything there is to say, about the demographic that's pirating Books. If your book appeals to 15-17 y.o. boys, sure, it may be stolen. If it doesn't, you are likely safe.

Hitch